17 End-of-Year English Activities to Engage Your Classes

"Blot Post #19: 17 End-of-Year English Activities to Engage Your Classes" is typed on top of an image of a boy at a dry-erase board.

Your grades are in, your students are super excited, and you’re looking for some end-of-year English activities to keep them academically engaged for those last few days of school. I got you! I’ve been where you are, surfing the Internet, reviewing old lesson plans, remembering what worked and didn’t, and today I’m sharing seventeen ideas that you’ll return to year after year.

End-of-Year English Activities for Socializing

A Review with Pictures, an End-of-the-Year Game

To illustrate this end-of-year English activity, Freytag's Pyramid is drawn on a dry erase board with an arrow pointing to the beginning of the pyramid for "exposition."

For this Pictionary-like game, students work in small groups with two teams each to illustrate ELA academic vocabulary (e.g., alliteration, bandwagon, comma, etc.) on a dry-erase board while team members try to guess the word. They can use symbols and words but cannot write a word that’s on the card. Each correct response earns a point, and the team with the most points wins. 

Materials

  • Cards with academic vocabulary (Write topics you’ve studied this year on index cards or type them on a document. If you’re feeling braindead at this time of year, visit your state curriculum for topic ideas (e.g., TEKS in Texas). 
  • Classroom dry-erase board (or small dry-erase boards or paper)
  • Dry-erase markers
  • One-minute timers
  • To show an example of the game in action, show this clip from The Big Bang Theory. (Stop at 2:43 if you don’t want your students to hear “Casper the alcoholic ghost.”)

 

Find a Friend, an End-of-Year Activity

A handout for a find-a -friend activity is displayed on a dry erase board.

Talk about summer plans by asking students to find a friend who will read a book, play with pets, visit the beach, etc. Engage students further with a Bingo-like contest to see who can get the most signatures across or black out the card first.

Materials

Insert a 5 x 5 table onto a document or slide, stretch it so that it fills up the page, and type one summer activity (e.g., watch TV every day, play with pets, learn something new) into each box. 

 

Memory Book for End of School Year

A printable memory book is displayed for an example of this end-of-year English activity.

Students love signing yearbooks, but many of them don’t have one to share, so I give them a class period to make and sign memory books. Have them fold a few sheets of colorful paper in half hamburger-style, staple the pages together at the fold, and personalize their covers.

Materials

 

Throw a Book-Themed Party

A room decorated for an end-of-school year party is pictured.

 

I’ve thrown a few class parties over the years, but my favorite is the one that ties into Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief, a novel my seventh graders study. I arrange desks into one long table and cover them with tablecloths or butcher paper, and my students bring in book-related snacks. You’ll never see so much blue food! During class, students explain how their snacks connect to the novel, and we watch clips from the movie. 

This can be done with any novel because specific foods don’t need to be mentioned. For example, with Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, students bring in candy canes to represent Tiny Tim’s cane, chocolate coins for Scrooge’s greed, and snowball cookies for the setting.

Materials

 

End-of-the-Year Student Awards

end-of-year-academic-awards for students are pictured.

Present each student with a certificate and a cool sticker. The certificates can range from serious (highest GPA in English) to silly (e.g., class clown). I personalize the stickers for each student by thinking of their likes and the topics they researched during the school year.  

Materials

 

Educational Board Games

For this end-of-the-year English activity, students play board games, such as Scrabble, as pictured here.

Ask students to bring in educational board games, like chess or Scrabble, and host a game day. 

Materials (Suggested Games)

 

End-of-Year English Activities for Review

What I Learned in ELA this Year from A to Z 

This end-of-year English activity is a handout that asks students to list topics they learned about on an A to Z chart.

Students write topic(s) they learned about for each letter of the alphabet. Add engagement to this activity by hosting a contest to see who can list the most or who can think of a topic for each letter.

Materials

Create A to Z charts for students by inserting a 5 x 5  table onto a document or slide, stretching it to fit the page, and typing a letter into each cell. (X and Y can share a box.) Or have students write one letter of the alphabet on each line of a sheet of notebook paper.

 

ELA Reflections 

Task cards are pictured on a dry erase board for an end-of-the-year English activity that asks students to reflect on their learning in ELA.

Create a worksheet or task cards that ask students to reflect on the school year. This allows reflection for both you and your students because their responses will tell you what lessons worked and didn’t work. 

Materials

Create a document with questions that ask students to explain which reading strategies were the most valuable, what writing they are most proud of, and what resources helped them learn best, for example.

End-of-Year English Activities that Take Students Outside

 

Haiku Writing

A tree and haiku handout are pictured to illustrate an end-of-the-year ELA activity that asks students to write haiku outdoors.

Review haiku with students, and then take them outside to observe and write about nature. It’s amazing what a simple change in atmosphere can do! Even the most reluctant writers get a kick out of this.

 

Materials

  • Paper or writers’ notebooks
  • Clipboards (if using paper)
  • Pens

 

Sidewalk Sentences

A picture of a sidewalk with a complex sentence written on it is shown to demonstrate sidewalk sentences, an end-of-the-year English activity.

For this activity, assign students specific clauses and phrases you’ve studied during the year (e.g., adjective clauses, adverb clauses, participial phrases, appositive phrases, etc.), and have them write sentences that include these phrases on sidewalks with chalk. Close the lesson with a group discussion on each sentence.

Materials

End-of-Year English Activities to Keep Students Writing

A boy pointing at a handout for a letter to an incoming student is pictured as an example of an end-of-school-year letter to a friend.

Letters to Future Selves

Gmail has a neat feature: the ability to select the date you want to send an email. I use this feature for students to send a letter to themselves (and a copy to me). Eighth graders send this to their senior selves for graduation; sixth and seventh graders select a date for the beginning of the next school year. They like it! 

 

Here’s how you do this:

  • In Gmail, click compose
  • click on the drop-down arrow next to send, 
  • click schedule send
  • click pick date and time
  • choose the date, and 
  • click on schedule send.

If your students don’t use Gmail accounts, then have them write letters (instead of typing). You can mail them out at a future date or ask them to pick them up from you next year. 

Materials

  • Gmail accounts and computers or 
  • Pen, paper, 
  • Stamps and envelopes (if mailing)

 

End-of-School-Year Thank You Letter to Teachers

What teacher doesn’t love reading notes that tell them how amazing they are?! Students simply write letters to their favorite teachers, thanking them, telling them what they liked about their class, explaining why they’re a favorite, etc. After they’re finished writing and you’ve reviewed the letters, place them in teachers’ boxes.

Materials

  • Pen
  • Paper

 

Letters to Incoming Students

Another type of letter writing I like to assign at the end of the school year is a letter to my future students. Current students give them advice, tell them what to expect in class, warn them about pet peeves, etc. They then record themselves reading their letters on Flip. (A partner can hold the letter behind the camera so it doesn’t look like they’re reading.) Save the letters or the videos for your new students on one of the first days of school next year.

Materials

  • Pen 
  • Paper

Crafty End-of-Year English Activities

Mosaics for Literature 

A mosaic of the sun and a handout with directions for creating a paper mosaic are pictured for this end-of-school-year English activity.

For this end-of-year craft, students use construction paper to create mosaics of places, symbols, objects, characters, etc. that connect to something we read in class and explain that connection on the back of the art. Students amaze me with their creativity; I even had one young lady who designed a Cerberus who looked like Cerberus. So impressive!  

Materials

 

Character Hats

A dry erase board, two hats, and directions for creating character hats are pictured.

This activity works well for myths and fantasies. Students create hats for various characters they read about during the school year. 

Suggested Materials 

End-of-Year English Activities to Keep Students Smiling

Picture Book Readings

A last day of school agenda is written on a dry-erase board: Read Last Day Blues and sign memory books.

Secondary-level students aren’t too old to gather around you for a picture book reading. I promise! 

 

Suggested Picture Books for the Last Day of School

Last Day Blues by Julie Danneberg

When I read this one to students, I substitute my name for Mrs. Hartwell’s and my students’ names for Mrs. Hartwell’s students. I don’t tell them what I’m up to, and it takes them a second to realize. 🙂

I Wish You More by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

This is a sweet book to let students know that you always wish the best for every one of them. As with Last Day Blues, add every student’s name to the text as you read to them for extra smiles.

 

End-of-Year English Activities Just for Fun

Give Students a Brain Break with ELA and Summer Word Searches 

3 summer word search puzzles are pictured as an example of an end-of-the-year ELA activity.

When students finish work early or need a brain break, give them a word search with academic vocabulary or summer-related words. 

Materials

Type thirty-five (more or less, depending on desired difficulty) ELA or summer-related words in a column on an 11” x 8 ½” slide, insert a 17 x 17 table to the right of the words, stretch the table to fill the page, print this sheet, and write a letter into each box to spell the words from your list. Fill in the empty spaces with random letters, and type the letters into the table. 

 

Related End-of-Year English Activities

For handouts of the resources I discussed visit “Fun End-of-School Year Activities Bundle.”

Visit A Wanted Lesson Plan for “The Tell-Tale Heart” for a four-period lesson that I usually use around Halloween but is also fun for the end of the school year.

TCEA’s “Activities for the End of the School Year” shares seven social-emotional activities, along with links to additional end-of-the-school-year resources.

 

End-of-Year English Activities in a Nutshell

 

Whether you’re reading, writing, gaming, filming, creating, partying, awarding, or socializing, I hope you and your students love these end-of-year English activities!

Start teaching students how to use the comma with my free lessons, including anchor charts, warm-ups, and a slideshow with a corresponding booklet.

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